Skype Virus

Just a post for those poor souls whose Skype are infected by this annoying worm. Check out the write-up at http://heartbeat.skype.com/2007/09/the_worm_that_affects_skype_fo.html.

You can always check the health status of the Skype P2P network here.

A quick summary on how to fix this problem. According to the Skype Heartbeat blog, 2 ways are available.

The first and less-tech related way is to update your anti-virus program. Then perform a full system scan of your PC.

The second method requires you to delve into the registry hives. If you are really competent, then these are the steps:

1. Restart the PC in Safe Mode
2. Run regedit
3. Go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunOnce, find entry with mshtmldat32.exe. Delete this entry.
4. Go to Windows\System32 directory and delete following files: wndrivs32.exe, mshtmldat32.exe, winlgcvers.exe, sdrivew32.exe.
5. Go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc
6. Find file HOSTS.
7. Open it with Notepad, Ctrl+A and delete all entries (this will resume your anti-virus updates), save, close.
8. Restart the PC.

Cheers!